


Fire and Lightning

by MixMixSwirl



Category: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (Video Games)
Genre: M/M, POV Thermite, POV starts Therm but switches to Bandit later on, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-04
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:48:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23018830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MixMixSwirl/pseuds/MixMixSwirl
Summary: Thermite and Twitch are on a mission, and Bandit is observing. Bandit saves the day, but there's a lot of tension between him and Thermite.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	1. Debrief

Six clicked the recorder on. “State your codename and full name please.”  
“Uh, Thermite. Jordan Trace.”  
“I am interviewing Thermite today for a disciplinary investigation. Could you explain what happened please?”  
“I- '' I started, and wiped my brow. My hand came back dirty. “I didn’t think it would turn out like that.”  
“Can you elaborate?”  
“Well, I guess, I don’t know, I just didn’t really think about it, y’know? I know I’m a soldier first, but you always tell us to trust our gut, Harry, and that’s what I did.”  
Harry let out a sigh. “It’s probably easier if we start from the beginning.”  
“It all started off fine...”

‘Shit.’ I said. ‘Really? Now?’  
Twitch jogged up to me. ‘What’s wrong?’ she asked, a look of mild concern on her face.  
‘Remember that one in a million I was talking about?’  
‘Oui?’ Her brow furrowed, then slowly unravelled into a look of astonishment. ‘Oh la la…’ I ran through the chemical processes in my head, but couldn’t come up with anything new. ‘Damn it!’ I shouted.  
‘Jordan, if you could not figure it out over a week, there’s no chance you’ll figure it out now.’  
Bandit then walked over.”

“And why was Dominic there?” Harry interrupted.  
“You know why.” Thermite grunted, then rolled his eyes, seeing the ‘go-on’ look on Harry’s face. “It was one of your cross-team analyses. Y’know, observe the other side, give them tips, see what they do, and both sides benefit.” Harry had a smug look on his face. “Yeah, believe it or not, I paid attention to one of your briefings. Anyways, as I was saying, Dominic was there, and he walked over-”

Oh shit. I thought. He’s _here_. It had been in the back of my mind that he was observing us today, but I had blocked him out so I wouldn’t get _distracted_. Instead of full tactical gear, he was wearing a t-shirt, tactical vest, and slightly less beat-up jeans than normal. Guess those must be his casual jeans. _Damn he’s got nice arms_. I had lost all track of my equilibrium calculations, and now I was scrambling for something related to the task at hand when he walked up to me with that smug ass grin. “So Therm, looks like you have a problem, huh?” A grunt was all I could manage, while I was still trying to reboot my brain. “Maybe you need another opinion? What’s wrong?”  
“Uhhh, weeeell,” I stalled, trying to simultaneously think of a way of explaining what was wrong, and _stop looking at his arms_. Twitch jumped in. “Let me explain it, you keep on thinking.” _Oh thank God_. The world around me blurred out and Twitch’s voice faded into a drone as I visualized the breach charge in my head. _What if… no… God damn it, stop thinking about Dom’s ass!_ Bandit shook me out of my haze. “What if,” he said, “Twitch shot it with her drone?” _Would that work?_ I thought about it for a second. That could give the catalyst the energy it needs to start the chain… “Oh my God. That’ll fucking do it!” a grin cracked out on my face. “I could kiss you right now!” I blurted. I saw his smirk somehow grow smugger. _Why did I say that?_ I barely heard Bandit muttering “Be careful what you wish for.” under his breath. _I felt my cheeks heat up and my heart started to pound. Fuck. I’d like to do that - wipe that cocky grin off his face. Damn it, Trace, get your mind out of the gutter!_  
Twitch cleared her throat, and said “Well, I uh have an extra drone so uh, allons-y!” I watched her drone over to the charge and aim. “Three, two, one, shooting!” Her drone shot, and nothing happened. _Damn it, I thought that would work. _I walked to the charge, and as soon as I reached for it, the damn thing went off.__

__“And that’s the last I remember, before I woke up, here.” I started to fiddle with the bandages wrapped around my hands. Of course I had left out the uh- _unprofessional_ parts about Dom.  
“ Can you pick up with what -ahem- happened here?”  
“Oh, uh sure. I came to on that pallet right there…” 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thermite wakes up and Bandit takes care of him.

“I woke up, and felt really groggy. It felt like the worst hangover in my life.” I said.

“That would be the concussion you got.” Harry quipped. I rolled my eyes and continued. “I then noticed that the rest of me hurt too…”

“Ahh, shit.” I said to nobody in particular. I looked around, and saw the signature yellow writing on the wall.  _ Ah, so I’m back at Hereford. _ I tried to sit up, then immediately regretted it as my body screamed out in pain. My hands were wrapped in bandages, and I had wounds here and there on my arms and chest. My vest probably took the brunt of the blast. My legs were fine, but my pants looked like they had been in a blender. I looked to my left and saw what remained of my shirt.  _ Damn, I really liked that shirt. _ I felt exhausted after just taking inventory, and faded again into unconsciousness. 

I was woken up sometime later to someone shaking me. “Jordan, Jordan, wake up.” I opened my eyes to see the blurry shape of Bandit standing over me, his usual smirk replaced with a look of concern. Upon seeing my eyes open, Bandit stopped shaking me, and sat back. “Are you alright? Well, barring the, uh, mummy impression. Halloween is months away.” he said as he gestured to my bandage wrapped hands. “Not even my near death has stopped you from being a smartass, I see.” I wheezed. Bandit grinned, then sobered up. “In all seriousness, I’m glad you’re okay. 

“What happened?” I asked. I could only remember a few hazy details. 

“Well, Twitch shot the charge with your drone, and then you thought that it didn’t work, so you went to go take off your charge. Well, it turns out that the plan did work, and the charge went off with you next it, landing you here.” His recollection helped jog my memory, and the operation started coming back to me.  _ I feel like I’m forgetting something... _ As I was piecing back together what happened, Bandit cursed. “Scheisse, Kateb said you need to eat and take these meds.” He shook a pill bottle. “I’ll help you sit up.” 

I slowly started to lean forward, and Bandit helped me up. His warm hand felt really nice on my back.  _ What am I missing? _ “Thanks, Dom. You got any water for the pills?” He responded, “Yeah, right here.” He gave me a bottle of water and some pills, which I then took. _ Think Trace, think. What the hell am I forgetting? _ I gestured for the food, and Bandit passed the tray to me. On it was a bowl of soup, and a piece of sourdough. The warm soup helped jumpstart my brain, then I started on the bread. Bandit was watching all this, with an anxious expression on his face. My eyes widened.  _ Oh shit. Dom was flirting with me on the mission _ . I tried to take a sudden breath, then started choking on the bread. 

“Godtverdammt, Jordan, you better not die  _ now _ on a fucking piece of bread.” Bandit said as he hit me on the back. I could barely hear him over my loud coughing. I grabbed the half-empty bottle of water and downed it, finally dislodging the piece of bread. “Bandit locked eyes with me then said, “Scheisse, I should do this before you kill yourself.” and he leaned in and kissed me. I was not expecting it, but then leaned into it. His lips tasted like whiskey...

Harry cleared his throat. “And that’s where I found you two. Alright, I don’t need any more details. I will evaluate the situation and get back to you and Brunsmeier once I have decided how to resolve the situation.”


	3. Compromised

“The relationship between Trace and Brunsmeier is worrisome. Workplace relationships are always dangerous, but they are even more so in their line of duty.”

_ -Excerpt from Harry’s Audio Logs _

“What’s up?” Ash asked me. We were sitting in the mess hall, away from everyone else. The other conversations faded into a din.    
“Eliza, I uh, I-” I stammered.

“Is this about the thing with Dom?”

“I- How do you know about that?”

“Oh come on.” Ash let out a laugh. “The whole base knows. Em blabbed about it. You and him getting frisky.”   
I let out a sigh of relief. “Well that’s noth-”

“And,” Ash interrupted, “I heard that Harry caught you in-pardon my French-  _ flagrante delicto. _ ” she said, waggling her eyebrows.

I felt my face grow red. “How the hell do you know about that?” I said.    
“I have my sources.” she smirked. Ash never liked revealing the source of her intel.

“Eliza Cohen. Who told you?”

“Well, Dom told Marius, who then told Elias, and Pulse overheard, and told me.”

“Great! So half the base knows.”

“Dude c’mon! You scored! It’s your dream. Isn’t this what you always wanted? Who cares who knows.”

I took a deep breath in, and ran my hands through my hair. “Eliza, I don’t think that we should be together. It’s too dangerous. We could already be getting reprimanded. I don’t want to risk our careers. I want to do it, but it’s- it’s too risky.” I let out a breath. 

“Isn’t this what you wanted though? Don’t you want to be happy?” She asked.

“We aren’t even together. It might not work out, or one of us might be relocated, or maybe it was a one-time thing. I’m putting an end to this now. Before anyone else gets hurt.” I stood up, and started walking off.

“Therm, wait!” Ash shouted from the table. “Think about this!” I ignored her and kept walking. I already felt sick to my stomach.  _ Dom, I’m sorry for this. _ I walked over to where the Germans were sitting. Marius and Monika were sitting opposite of Dom and Elias. They were in the middle of a heated conversation in German as I came up behind Dom. As I stepped behind him, Jager and IQ suddenly stopped speaking, with expectant looks on their faces.  _ Just hold it together Trace. Don’t make a scene. He’s probably come to the same conclusion _ ,  _ and this’ll be nice and short.  _ My heart pounded.  _ Yeah right. _ My shadow pooled over Dom, then he turned around with his familiar smirk. He took one look at my face and his smug expression faded, replaced with a look of concern.  _ Uh oh. He knows something’s wrong. _ I let out a shaky breath I didn’t know I was holding, and said, “Dom, can I talk to you? Alone?”  _ I’m so sorry.  _ I turned before he could answer, and headed towards the door. I heard the bench scoot out behind me, and Monika wished Dom luck, with some cheering from Elias. My stomach plummeted.  _ God forgive me for what I’m about to do. _


End file.
